ly in the great promises of the future glory. The common name for Him
is _Jehovah_. Jesus practically gives us the name Father for God. He
constantly refers to God as _His_ Father. It was He who taught us to call
God Father. He never speaks of Jehovah, but of the Father. His language in
this always fits in perfectly, as of course it would, with John's
standpoint, that Jesus is the Jehovah of the Old Testament times. A little
later Jesus says, "Moses gave you not the manna from heaven, but--my
Father giveth (note the change in the time element of the word)--giv_eth_
you the true bread." It is a sort of broken, readjusted sentence, as
though He was going to say who it was that gave the manna, and then
changes to speaking of the Father and the present. He does not say who it
was that _did_ give that manna. It is plain enough from John's standpoint
what _he_ understands Jesus to mean as he puts the incident into his
story.

<u>Jesus is God Wooing Man.</u>

During the autumn before His death, while in attendance on one of the
Jerusalem feasts, the leaders are boasting of their direct descent from
Abraham, and attacking Jesus. On their part the quarrel of words gets very
bitter. They ask sharply, "Who do you pretend to be? Nobody can be as
great as Abraham; yet your words suggest that you think you are." Then
came from Jesus' lips the words, spoken in all probability very quietly,
"Your father Abraham exulted that he might see my day, and he saw it, and
was glad." It is a tremendous statement, staggering to one who has not yet
grasped it.

In attempting to find its meaning, some of our writing friends have
supposed it means that, after Abraham's death, when he was in the other
world, at the time of Jesus being on the earth, he was conscious of Jesus
having come and was glad. But this hardly seems likely, else it would
read, "He _sees_, and _is_ glad." The seeing and gladness were both in a
day gone by. Others have supposed that it refers to the scene on Moriah's
top, when the ram used as a sacrifice instead of Isaac enabled Abraham to
see ahead _by faith_, not actually, the coming One. But this, too, seems a
bit far-fetched, because Abraham was surprised by the occurrences of that
day. He fully expected to sacrifice his son, apparently, so there could be
no exultant looking forward to _that_ day for him. And deeper yet, the
coming One was not expected to be a sacrifice, but a king.

The natural meaning seems to lie